Harry Simons was a men's wear designer, manufacturer, inventor and teacher. Doris Stein Research Center in the Department of Costumes and Textiles at Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired a substantial collection of Harry Simons' books, business records, photographs, original drawings, patterns and personal files in 1997.1 Harry Simons Archive provides a valuable educational resource for the study of men's wear design in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Harry Simons (Figure 1) made a lifetime study of every detail of the garment manufacturing business and became a master teacher as well as a recognized authority on men's wear design and manufacture. He constantly preached the importance of learning a scientific method of pattern drafting to eliminate guesswork and to produce garments which were correctly balanced, well proportioned and affordable to the general public. He drew up specifications for garments, created new styles, designed and graded patterns, and researched, lectured and wrote about the history of clothing. Simons developed extensive statistics on human proportions, and was a pioneer in the men's ready-to-wear industry in the United States. Born in 1894 in Rochester, New York, Harry Simons was the third son in his family. His father, Louis Simons, emigrated from Poland shortly after the Civil War and found work as a tailor in Rochester where he married, bought a house, and raised a family. After Harry's last year in high school, the Simons family, by then numbering six boys and three girls, moved to Chicago where Louis worked as a men's wear designer. Harry went to Northwestern University for a short time, but quit school to join his father as an assistant designer. Al though he learned much from this experience with his father, their working relationship was not ideal. Harry decided to go out on his own. He took courses from design schools and devoured technical books on every aspect of tailoring. After working as a designer with several manufacturers in Chicago and Milwaukee, he moved to New York City in 1912. Tha t same year Harry Simons established a trade journal called Clothing Designer and Manufacturer. In August, 1918 the name was changed to Clothing Trade Journal, and Harry Simons served as its editor for over twenty-five years. His Garment Technical Institute, founded in 1912, began as The Harry Simons Designing Studio. Institute was a school of